North Coast Gardening

Monday Miscellany: Garden Illustrations, DIY Projects, Gratuitous Chicken Cutes and Botanical Belize

Yep, it’s been a busy week around the web, with all of the fine people on the internet coming up with cool DIY projects, tantalizing competitions, and all kinds of neat stuff to share. Starting us off?

Garden illustration giveaway

garden_illustration_giveawaSteve over at The Rainforest Garden is launching his garden illustration business with a contest – enter to win your very own commissioned illustration. Yep – he’ll draw whatever plant you like (and they’re gooood, too)!

Click here to enter. My biggest problem? Figuring out which plant to have him draw if I’m the lucky winner!

Crafty DIY pallet gardens, green roof birdhouses, and branch hooks

A while back the internet world was all abuzz with the adorable Fern Richardson‘s pallet garden tutorial. Well, Growing a Greener World TV obviously knows a good thing when they see it, because a recent episode featured the project along with some other living wall inspiration. Fun stuff! I don’t turn on the TV that often so I love that GGWTV is available to watch online. If you haven’t been keeping up I’d urge you to go check them out.

Branches-made-into-coat-rack-Small

Next, I know I’ve been linking to Stevie at Garden Therapy a lot lately, but man! Her stuff’s just been so inspiring to me. Cute photos, totally do-able projects, and I have most of the supplies around the house already. Love love love. Her most recent projects?

A branch coat rack tutorial

Green roof birdhouse tutorial

Tell me you don’t want one of each! What a great use for some of the scrap wood and extra paint you have kickin’ around the house. Sty-lish.

Gratuitous chicken cutes

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Did you know chickens can swim? Yeah, me neither. The last time one of my ladies accidentally stepped into the pond she made such a fuss I thought there was a predator. I sprinted out and found her bawking disapprovingly and shaking duckweed from her toes.

I don’t know whether buff orpingtons are mellower than my Rhode Island reds or whether pools are more fun than ponds, but these birds seem to adore having a dip with their human companions. Have you EVER seen a chicken enjoying a swim before? I had no idea this was a possibility.

When bad names happen to good plants

DETA-304Yes, people, this lovely camellia at the left is known as the “crapnell” camellia. Camellia crapnelliana. Did the botanists think of the poor nursery folks at all when naming? Or us landscapers who might like to recommend this fine shrub to a client, but lack faith in our ability to say “crapnelliana” with a straight face?

More plants we can’t discuss in polite company here, from Amanda Thomsen. (Hat tip to Andrew Keys for the crapnell camellia find.)

Botanical Belize

Botanically BelizeA late entry to this week’s Miscellany, Jenn from Dirty Girl Gardening let me know her new ebook about her travel adventures is out, and guess what? It’s free!

The first of a series, Jenn applies her wit and signature style to a travelogue of her trip. Check out Botanically Belize here.

That’s it for this week, folks. Read anything cool around the web? Let me know in the comments below!

Genevieve

11 responses to “Monday Miscellany: Garden Illustrations, DIY Projects, Gratuitous Chicken Cutes and Botanical Belize”

  1. When I saw your picture of the chickens swimming, my first thought was “Photoshop! Chickens’ can’t swim” But then I looked at the link and it really does look like those chickens do indeed swim! I’m shocked.

    Thanks for the great link post. And thanks for the mention of Growing A Greener World. We appreciate it!

  2. Hah! I know! If I’d known about this before I would have made it a priority to create a nice shallow pond for them with a wading edge so they could ease into it. I think you need a nice mellow breed like buff orpingtons, though. My ladies are a little more down-to-earth and suspicious of new things.

    Delighted to help people know about Growing a Greener World. I love what you guys do!

  3. I love the chickens swimming pics! I’ll have to run out and grab a kiddie pool for my little hens! And maybe some floaties… 🙂

    Thanks for sharing my little eBook… it’s a pretty fun read and packed full of botanical info. I hope everyone downloads and likes it… feel free to leave comments to me on my FB page (see blog for link).

    Cheers, Jenn

    • Floaties!!! Oh my goodness, that mental picture is too cute. Thanks for stopping by, Jenn. I’m only a ways into the book so far but am greatly enjoying the casual style.

  4. Ha! I love the Camellia crapnelliana bit, the coatrack looks like it has a place in my future and the Botanically Belize book has an awesome cover illustration and a great topic to boot. Thanks for sharing! PS. The contest is at over 50 entries! WOOT!

  5. Wow, thanks, Gen. I’m flattered you like my garden projects.

    I so want to make a pallet garden after checking out those posts by Fern et al. Thanks for sharing. Monday Miscellany is an essential read to brighten up a Monday.

    • Thanks, Stevie! You definitely ought to check out Fern’s new book – she’s got a few adorable DIY projects in there, including a very in-depth and beautiful tutorial of the pallet garden.